Scottish Genealogy Research News

Category: General

Jun 10, 2017

Modern Day Index errors

It can be so frustrating when you know that a record must exist but there is no obvious reason as to why. The best example I can give is within my own family tree with the marriage of John Roseburgh to Margaret Crawford in the parish of Stow in the year 1858. A search of the index had found no record. As all their children’s birth certificates had stated a consistent place and date of marriage I saw no reason to doubt that they had married. I then searched with only the bride's details and the marriage record appeared.

I found that the modern-day indexer had recorded Roseburgh as Roxburgh. On closer examination, I noted that when John Roseburgh had placed his signature on the document the "s" and the "e" in Roseburgh were tight that the indexer had taken this as an "x". However, my findings were confirmed when I scanned the document and in the section on the marriage document where the Registrar had recorded john's parent’s names the surname was clearly shown as "Roseburgh".

As professional genealogists we come upon many errors in the index system and always report such matters to the appropriate person.

If you have a problem relating to a particular birth, death or marriage record please do not hesitate to contact us. In most cases we will be more than happy to advise you free of charge.